Case Study: Hals Hardware Hal Donovan started an ordinary hardware store, named Hals Hardware in Sandusky, Ohio, in 1998. He had been working during his college summer vacations for a long-established hardware store and decided he liked the business. Hals Hardware developed an excellent reputation as a friendly neighbourhood store. The store managers are all active in communities and the store regularly sponsors youth sport teams and supports local charities. When hired, salespeople go through a comprehensive training program that includes product training (plumbing, electrical, power tools, flooring, garden, etc.) customer service skills training. As a result of this focus on service, Hals Hardware became a community gathering place. Hal offers classes and workshops for homeowners and hobbyists three evenings each month, and regularly schedules seminars for professional customers on weekend mornings. Many of these workshops and seminars are under written and taught by manufacturers to promote their products, but an increasing number is being created by Hals Hardware staff members. In recent years, Hal has become concerned that the business is no longer growing. The store is facing increasing competition from hardware chains such as Home Depot and Lowes. These national chains have opened many new stores, which are larger, carry more items and offer lower prices on some items. The competition is fierce. For example, Hals Hardware closed its lumber department because of the competition. The national chains buy lumber in such large quantities that they can offer far low prices. Hal matched his larger competitors prices, but found he was unable to earn a profit on lumber sales and that the department consumed a large amount of floor spaces in the store. Hal was worried that this sort of problems could develop in other departments, so he began looking for ways to add value to the customer experience, especially in ways that the national chains were not willing or able to do. For example, Hal has found that many people want to try out a new power tool in person before they spend hundreds of dollars on a purchase. Thus, Hals Hardware created a tool demonstration area staffed with salespeople who are experts in power tool operation. Many times, the store has to specially order tools for customers when they are working on specific projects. For each major type of power tools (drills, power saws, joiners, grinding tools, etc.), Hal created a small booklet of hints for using that type of tools. Hals salespeople give these booklets to customers as free handouts. They also sell Hals own low-cost instructional DVDs. Hals Hardware currently has a website, which includes general information about the company, directions to the store and business hours. Hal is thinking about expanding the website to include online sale. He is hoping that customers may find the Web useful to order items, see whether items are in stock, and compare different brands of a particular product. Hal also hopes that the website may reach customers who are not located near the store, but he realized that some of his products do not have idea shipping profiles. Case Study Activities 1. Conduct SWOT analysis for Hal's Hardware regarding business analysis for developing an e-commerce website for Hal's Hardware. You can also use your personal knowledge of hardware/tools retail industry or the information from your research on existing e-commerce websites that sell hardware/tools. 2. Identify possible revenue model(s) for Hals Hardware digital business (Revenue models are relevant to marketing strategies). 3. Based on the SWOT analysis, do audience/users analysis, and determine an effective marketing strategy for Hals Hardware, focusing on digital marketing. 4. Based on the SWOT analysis, the marketing strategy, and customer-centric analysis/design for effective e-commerce websites, determine objectives (tasks, functions and features) of the website for Hals Hardware. 5. Identify and describe threats to the security for the website. Refer to Figure 10-1 in your textbook, and place the identified threats in appropriate quadrant, and explain your placement. 6. Determine the methods (technologies, facilities, tools, utilities, contents, etc.) to meet the objectives

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